Idella, coming from Marion, Virginia to Virginia Tech, joined the Scharf Lab in October of 2023 as an undergraduate researcher to investigate the ligand specificity of chemoreceptors in the bacterium, Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens. She earned her B.S. in Microbiology from Tech in the spring of 2024 and joined the Scharf Lab as a Master’s student in the fall of 2024 where she will continue the work she began in undergrad. Outside of the lab, Idella enjoys reading and spending time outdoors.